Wednesday, 30 March 2011

As much as I enjoy reviewing all the newest and latest products from the likes of Cadbury and Nestle etc, nothing give me more pleasure than featuring a niche UK British brand. These reviews can be especially exciting for me when I believe the brand to have as much potential as the one I am featuring today - enter centre stage LUCKY'S!!

Lucky's are a newly established British based firm who have a brand proposition inspired by the book Alice in Wonderland. Their product range consists of 'unique luxury cakes covered in pure chocolate', in which they combine their own handmade cake recipes with the finest chocolate from fancy pants Valrhona (winner of many a prestigious choco snob award).

I've not done Lucky's justice with my introduction to their brand, so I suggest you check out their website to read further into them (See HERE). All you guys need to know for the minute however is that today, alongside my trusted family tasting panel, I got the chance to try out their 'Honey Time Collection' set of cakes. These came described as 'premium chocolate enrobed spiced honey cakes with cream fillings', and contained three different variants of cake - 'Fancy Fudge', 'Sour Kick' and 'Nutty Delight'. These were each portioned twice (thank god! Haha!)

As you can see from my photos, presentation was absolutely first class. The entire box was wonderfully designed and gave the product a real sense of premiumality with everything from the on-pack design, inner menu cards and fancy bow ribbon making it one of the best presented products I think I have ever received to review on the site. Hopefully my photos of the cakes also do justice to just how impeccable and appetising they looked. We were all tremendously excited about tasting these - see our thoughts below.

Sour Kick - 'Valrhona 40% milk chocolate covered and apricot in bourbon'. My mother latched on to one these as soon as the box was opened and she wasn't left disappointed. She said the milk chocolate was wonderfully smooth flowing in it's sweet, cocoa rich flavours, and that the sweetness that came from the honey cake and chocolate contrasted quite superbly with the fruity tartness of the apricot jam. Texturally she said it was a dream, with the soft melting chocolate and jam giving a lovely moistness. She obviously must of thought a lot of it as she was quick to strike up a deal with to secure a large portion of the second piece :D. I wouldn't argue against her awarding it the elusive rating of Superb.

Fancy Fudge - 'Valrhona 60% dark chocolate covered milk caramel'. My father and I were the ones who nabbed these two, with him claiming this was about perfect when it came to proposition given that he loved dark chocolate, honey cake and of course fudge. As we expected these were delicious cakes, with the three different chief constituents proving highly complimentary to each other. The 60% dark chocolate could of perhaps been a little stronger, however it was still glorious tasting with it's unsweetened cocoa flavours setting a rich taste from the outset. The inner honey cake and milk caramel were highly sweet in comparison, but left delicious toffee and butter influences in the mouth. My Father has insisted on I give it a rating of Superb.

Nutty Delay - 'Valrhona 35% white chocolate covered chocolate praline'. Doesn't this cake look absolutely fantastic!? I thought so! I think we are all aware that white chocolate isn't my favourite chocolate type, but it has to be said this was extremely high quality. As with all good white chocolate, the taste was more rooted in it's cream based flavours rather sugar, and it had a cool, flowing milkyness to it. At the heart of these cakes the honey cake was every bit as good as the other variants, though I personally wanted just a little more woody nuttyness from the praline chocolate cream. I was told that this was me being ultra fussy, however with just a little bit rawness in the nutty flavours I think these could have been just as special as the other two above. Very Good.

Overall I can't quite praise these Lucky luxury chocolate cakes enough - they are the best product I have reviewed on ChocolateMission so far this year. I simply loved everything about the entire package I received. The idea behind the brand, product concept, product delivery, product quality - all I can say is that it was just all exceptional. It's not often that I come across a totally unique proposition that is as well executed as these cakes were from Lucky's. The guys over at Lucky's are still very much in their infancy as a company, but if they can keep up this level of quality as they develop then they are surely in for great things in the very near future. If you want to treat yourself to some chocolatey treats that are nothing like you have ever tried before, then I will just point you in the direction of Lucky's. I can't wait for my next experience with this fantastic new brand - neither can the rest of family.